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Magnetar
Magnetar was a heavyweight robot which competed in Series 10 of Robot Wars. Built and entered by Team Ranglebots, it was the successor to their former Grand Finalist Pulsar, which competed in Series 8-9. It lived up to this reputation by reaching the Grand Final off the back of three consecutive knockouts, but fell to issues with its self-righting mechanism. Design Although an entirely new machine, Magnetar is essentially an improved version of Pulsar, featuring a largely similar design to the latter. It runs on two pairs of wheels located either side of the chassis, powered by brushless skateboard motors and a 50V lithium polymer battery, the highest voltage seen on the show. This drive system makes Magnetar invertible, although it can use its self-righting mechanism to ensure that its steep wedge - which features the robot's name on each corner - is always on the arena floor, albeit the self-righting mechanism became stuck open on two occasions. This wedge leads into Magnetar's two-stage spinning ‘drisc’, which uses two large copper-coloured teeth on each side of the thin drum spinner to make maximum contact with opponents. The weapon weighs 21kg and is estimated to spin at 8,500rpm, with a tip speed of 250mphhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISYWEAhlNC8. Magnetar itself is heavily armoured, using 8mm HARDOX 600 with areas in 6mm and 3.2mm thick HARDOX 450, and 3D-printed parts. The armour is finished in grey with grey and copper welds, with the robot also featuring dark grey wheels and orange LED lights on the self-righting arm. Magnetar differs from Pulsar through featuring reworked internals and a reduced top speed of 13mph; the latter to make the robot more controllable. This was a result of replacing Pulsar's two Rotomax motors for four Racerstar 5065 200kv motors on modified VESC's. Its front wedge also features an extra blade, bolted onto the surface for a lower ground clearance. According to Robot Wars: The Official Handbook, Magnetar can flip itself over; the gyroscopic forces of its drum, however, can be countered through the use of four neodymium magnets attached to its baseplate. These magnets offer up to 200kg of downforce, enabling Magnetar to remain upright while turning with the weapon spinning, as well as providing it with extra traction on the arena floor. Etymology The name Magnetar was chosen to directly follow on from the robot's predecessor Pulsar, as according to research in physics, a magnetar is formed when a pulsar collides with a supernova in space. This is a deliberate reference to the Series 9 battle between Pulsar and Supernova, where a devastating blow hindered the performances of both robots for the rest of the competition, and Magnetar was built in order to replace Pulsar. The Team Magnetar was entered into Series 10 by Team Ranglebots, named after the team captain's online business, Ranglebox. The captain was 21-year old engineer for RPD International, Ellis Ware, the lead builder, designer and driver of the robot. He was joined on the team by his 59-year old father Peter, who was partially responsible for the electronics maintenance of the machine, and his mother Tara, aged 55. The team had previously entered Series 8 and 9 with Magnetar's predecessor, Pulsar. Ellis Ware had also mentored the victorious Kadeena Machina team during Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars. Qualification After Pulsar reached the Grand Final in Series 8, and the Heat Final in Series 9, Ellis Ware initially intended to compete in Series 10 with Pulsar for a third time. However, Pulsar's application for the series was unexpectedly rejectedMagnetar & Pulsar - Robot Wars Facebook post, initially meaning that Team Ranglebots would not compete in the series. In response, Ellis Ware conceptualised Magnetar, and sent a detailed CAD of his new design to the BBC. This version of Magnetar featured slight differences, including spoked wheels, an altered drum design, and a code "S1021R3" atop the robot, meaning "Series 10, 21 years old, Revision 3"Magnetar & Pulsar - Robot Wars Facebook post. Magnetar was accepted into Series 10, and Team Ranglebots constructed the robot within a limited time-frame of only four weeks, and competed in the series. Robot History Series 10 Magnetar competed in Heat 5 of Series 10, where it drew Push to Exit and Hobgoblin in its Group Battle. With Hobgoblin eliminated by Push to Exit early on, Magnetar made a decisive attack on Push to Exit, throwing it over onto the Floor Flipper. The Floor Flipper threw Push to Exit up onto Magnetar's drum, damaging the former's flipper and entanglement devices, with Magnetar proceeding to pushed the inverted Push to Exit into Shunt. With Push to Exit unable to self-right and Hobgoblin suffering mobility issues, Magnetar spun its weapon up to full speed and gyro-danced while both of its opponents were counted out. Magnetar's second fight - its Heat Semi-Final against Expulsion - was equally brisk. Expulsion immediately pressed the Arena Tyre, triggering the Fog of War and allowing Magnetar to get its drum up to speed within the CO2 jets. Hidden in the clouds, Magnetar reached full speed unchallenged and charged into Expulsion, sending the 70kg machine flying into the air and onto the Floor Flipper. Expulsion was thrown even higher by the Flipper, and crashed to the arena floor, ending up stranded on its tool spinner. With this, Magnetar secured its second-consecutive knock-out victory. In the Heat Final, Magnetar drew a fellow Series 8 finalist in Thor, which had previously encountered - and won against - Pulsar in the Series 8 Grand Final. Thor was armed with a halo of steel cables to entangle Magnetar's drum and snap its weapon belt, while Team Ranglebots made minor adjustments to its drive systems before the battle. Magnetar landed the first attack, knocking Thor in a powerful uppercut. Thor recovered and made the most of Magnetar's slowed weapon to get behind and shove it into the arena wall, landing several successive axe blows in the process. Magnetar pivoted away, and Thor lost its momentum when it drove over the Floor Flipper. Although Thor recovered by self-righting, Magnetar capitalised on its mistake by chopping off one of its steel cables and landing a heavy blow on its left wheel pod. Herding Thor towards the Floor Flipper again, Magnetar cut off more of its cables, before hitting and throwing it into a backflip. Magnetar caused more damage to Thor's wedge before the latter was thrown onto its drum by the Floor Flipper; the impact ruptured Thor's pneumatics system, disabling its axe and engulfing it in clouds of leaking CO2. With Thor being left unable to self-right, Magnetar emerged victorious, securing its place in the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, Magnetar faced two flippers, a flipper entered by Ellis Ware's own employer, Rapid, and the winner of the 10 Robot Rumble, Eruption. Magnetar had an immediate opportunity to spin up its drum, as Eruption was reservedly waiting in the corner, and Rapid targeted Eruption. Magnetar came in and battered the side of Rapid, throwing it into the air with two consecutive blows. It tried to grind into the side of Eruption, and delivered a direct blow to the wheel hubs, almost turning Eruption over. Rapid was stuck on its back end, so Magnetar pushed Eruption backwards, causing it to knock Rapid back into the battle. However, in a head-on charge, Magnetar drove up the flipper of Eruption, and was turned over, requiring Magnetar to self-right during Rogue House Robot. Critically, Magnetar's self-righting mechanism did not retract after this, leaving the robot vulnerable to both flippers, although Eruption then immobilised Rapid. Magnetar was tossed back by Eruption once, but then a close contest ensued where Magnetar, which now lacked a working drum, pushed Eruption around while also driving onto the wedge of the flipper to be lifted lightly, as Eruption seemed to have lost significant power. Magnetar pushed Eruption into Dead Metal's CPZ, and slammed into the wedge, rebounding into the Arena Tyre to release the pit. However, after pushing Eruption into the reach of Matilda, Magnetar drove onto the tusks of the House Robot and was flipped over. As its self-righting mechanism was jammed open, Magnetar was beached, and was counted out, leaving Eruption as the winner. Relegated to the Robot Redemption Knockouts, Magnetar fought the experienced Behemoth. Magnetar drove in quickly, but was stopped by the surface of the pit, and Behemoth flipped it over. Magnetar self-righted quickly, and landed a sequence of hits on Behemoth's scoop to throw it over, although it became clear that Magnetar could still not retract its self-righting mechanism. Magnetar landed another hit on Behemoth, but was dangerously thrown backwards by the flipping scoop, remaining on its wheels and making contact with the drum upon landing. This allowed Magnetar to trap Behemoth near the arena wall, rolling it over with the drum. At this stage, Behemoth had lost drive on one side, but Magnetar was also struggling for control. Radio signal issues were limiting Magnetar's movement, and the drum stopped spinning, although Magnetar managed to push Behemoth near to the floor flipper. Sensing that Behemoth lacked controlled movement, Ellis Ware waited for his opponent to be counted out, but this time did not come, forcing Magnetar to approach. Although it managed to press into the side of Behemoth, it could cause no damage, and eventually exposed its back end to Behemoth's scoop. Magnetar was flipped over, and without the self-righting mechanism, Magnetar was suddenly defeated. It was counted out, and then Dead Metal dropped Magnetar into the pit, as its competition came to a close. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 3 *Losses: 2 Series Record NOTE: Ellis Ware also competed in Battle of the Stars as the mentor of Kadeena Machina. Outside Robot Wars Magnetar competed at the Extreme Robots live event in Guildford, in June 2018. It first went up against Cyclone 360. At first Magnetar struggled to spin up its drum, and resorted to ramming Cyclone 360 around the arena until Cyclone 360 lost mobility, then Magnetar's drum got up to speed and despite the fact that the drum was spinning backwards Magnetar delivered a small hit on the immobile Cyclone 360, awarding Magnetar the victory. It also defeated TR3 with a single hit, stranding TR3 on its back end to earn a victory in seconds. Magnetar made its next appearance in August 2019, as a static exhibit alongside Sandstorm and Ellis Ware's featherweights at Robonerd, shortly before it attended Extreme Robots in Colchester, at the start of September. Team Ranglebots have competed with various robots in lower weight classes, and have competed in various Chinese television shows. For more information, see Team Ranglebots. Trivia *The design of Magnetar's drum was seemingly used in the Deadly Drum Accessory Pack, developed by HEXBUG for the Robot Wars line. *Of the five heat winners in Series 10, Magnetar was the only one not to appear in the first episode of Series 8 or 9; both Magnetar and its predecessor Pulsar have only ever appeared in the fourth or fifth heats. *Magnetar and its predecessor Pulsar are the only Grand Finalists across the three revived series that never battled Carbide at some point. References External Links *Magnetar & Pulsar - Robot Wars Facebook page *Magnetar & Pulsar - Robot Wars Twitter page *[http://www.robotwars.tv/competitors/season-10/week-5/magnetar/ Magnetar on the Robot Wars website] Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots from Shropshire Category:Robots which debuted in Series 10 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 10 Category:Robots with Drums Category:Robots with a separate self-righting mechanism Category:Robots with astronomical names Category:Invertible Robots Category:Robots which outlasted two others in a 3-way melee Category:UK Grand Finalists Category:Robots with more Wins than Losses Category:Robots which are still competing today